Search Results: Historical Novel from H.W. Gumaer, Bookseller

Boston: C.M. Clark Publishing Co., 1901. First Edition. . Hardcover. Very Good to Near Fine/Issued Without Jacket. Charles H. Stephens. A First Printing, First Edition copy of Pidgin's historical novel based on the life of Revolutionary War patriot Aaron Burr. In the years after the war and after the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, during a race for governor of New York, Burr became involved in an ongoing dispute with the equally prominent Alexander Hamilton, first U.S. Secretary of Treasury and leader of the Federalist Party. The dispute ended in a duel in which Burr shot and killed Hamilton to become one of the most reviled figures in American history. Pidgin's novel, which is dedicated to Burr's daughter, Theodosia, is written from a different perspective than the usual sketches of Burr as just short of a traitor. 442 pages with two pages of publisher's ads at the back. Blue-cloth pictorial boards showing a dueling scene on the front cover. Gold-stamped lettering on… Read More

New York: Bantam Books, 1977. First Edition. . Mass Market Paperback. Good Plus to Very Good. Bantam 11149; L'Amour's story of Borden Chantry, marshall in a two-bit cowtown, faced with finding a mysterious killer who had, at last count, murdered five men in cold blood and was probably already thinking about number six. Paperback Original, True First Printing, First Edition. Pictorial wrappers show some wear including light reading creases, pair of creases across lower corner of front cover, some soiling on back. Text is age-tanned, with previous owner's name on front end page, and a slight spine lean. Overall, this copy is clean, unmarked, binding tight. First printings of this novel becoming hard to find.

New York: William Morrow & Co., 2004. First Edition. . Hardcover. Fine/Near Fine. Parker's 12th mystery-thriller and his second to win an Edgar Award (Best Novel - 2005) is set in California in the 1960s and features the three Becker brothers, one a minister, one a journalist and one a homicide detective. All three are shocked by the savage murder of a young woman from their past and all three, each in his own way, set out to find the killer. First Edition, First Printing (as stated, with complete numberline). About 6 1/2 x 9 1/4 inches, 370 pages quarter bound in brown cloth over blue paper-covered boards. The dustjacket shows author's name in blue and title in white against a blue and yellow background on both front panel and spine. Full panel photo of Parker on back panel. Boards and text are clean, complete and unmarked, no bumping, no chipping or creasing, not remaindered. Dustjacket shows only touch of edgewear at spine ends, o/w no tears, no creasing, not price-clipped. A… Read More

New York: Bantam Books, 1974. First Edition. . Mass Market Paperback. Good Plus to Very Good. Vintage Paperback: Bantam N8082. A mid-career Western from the bestselling L'Amour, arguably the most popular western writer in the history of the genre. "The Californios" features the Mulkerin family, which needs money to pay off the debt on their Malibu ranch and are desperate enough to follow an old Indian mystic and his stories of a gold treasure. Right behind them are a band of outlaws, who liked gold almost as much as killing. First Printing, First Paperback Edition, now more scarce than the Saturday Review Press hardcover edition. 188 pages in pictorial wrappers with an author biographical note and three pages of publisher's ads. Wrappers show moderate surface and edge wear with reading crease and some other light creasing. No tears, no chipping. Text is clean, complete and unmarked. Collectable.

New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992. First U.S. Edition. . Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. The Nobel Prize-winning Grass, controversial for his socialist political activisim and his late-life confession of service in the Waffen-SS as a teenager in WWII, was an extremely versatile writer -- publishing as a novelist, poet, playwright, and essayist, as well as being a talented visual artist. "The Call of The Toad," set in Grass' native Danzig, is a humorous romantic story about a man and woman in their fifties who set out to make a fortune by selling burial plots to Germans who were exiled from Danzig, their birthplace, after WWII. It is capitalism taken to absurdity as Grass skewers both German and Polish stereotypes and was the basis for a 2005 film directed by Robert Glinski. First Printing, First U.S. Edition (with an A to E letterline), translated by Ralph Mannheim. About 5 3/4 x 8 1/2 inches, 248 pages quarter bound in white cloth over white paper-covered boards. White… Read More

New York: Bantam Books, 1982. Hardcover. Very Good/Good Plus. Of his well-over 200 novels, L'Amour. the western genre's all-time best-selling author, wrote only a very few with a woman as the main character. "The Cherokee Trail," with stagecoach stationmaster, Mary Breydon, is one of those rarities. Her Virginia home destroyed in the Civil War, her husband murdered on their way to Colorado, Mary Breydon and her young daughter face constant danger from outlaws and Indians and a mysterious stalker as they turn the station into an important stop on the journey west. Bookclub Edition, First Edition Thus. About 5 1/8 x 8 3/8 inches, 177 pages including one-page biographical sketch at the end, in tan paper-covered boards with red lettering on spine and a "Colorado Territory" map decorating the pastedowns and end pages. The dustjacket shows a wrap-around illustration from a painting by Louis S. Glanzman showing a woman holding a rifle flanked to her right by a man with his hand… Read More

New York: Berkley Prime Crime, 2002. First Edition. . Hardcover. Fine/Fine. The final novel in the award-winning Monfredo's Cain trilogy, set in the first years of the Civil War and featuring U.S. Treasury Agent Bronwen Llyr trying desperately to warn Union generals that Confederate General Robert E. Lee is moving to cut off supplies to the Northern Army and turn the Peninsular Campaign into one more Union defeat. First Printing, First Edition. About 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 inches, 335 pages, including historical notes, in black paper-covered boards with gold lettering on spine. The pictorial dustjacket shows a woman standing on lawn in front of collonaded mansion staring at an army encampment across the road; dj's back panel shows series of blurbs praising Monfredo's Seneca Falls mysteries. Boards and text are clean, complete and unmarked, tight and square, not remaindered. No chipping, creasing or bumped corners or spine ends. Dustjacket shows only a touch of wear at spine ends, no tears, no… Read More

New York: Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1939. First Edition. . Hardcover. Near Fine/Good Plus to Very Good. di Donato's autobiographical novel, originally published as a short story in "Esquire" in 1937, is an uncompromising and graphic but beautiful description of the hardships and struggles of immigrant Italian construction workers in 1920s USA. The Christ of the title refers to a worker (the author's father) who is killed in a construction accident when he is buried in tons of concrete. The book is the basis for a 1949 film ("Give Us This Day") directed by Edward Dmytryk. First Printing, First Edition Thus. 311 pages in black cloth-covered boards with gold lettering on the spine and a pick-&-shovel-in-a-halo design on the front cover. Boards' bottom corners slightly bumped, o/w boards and text are clean and unmarked, tight and square, not remaindered. The dustjacket, with all four corners clipped, shows a fair amount of surface and edge wear including several… Read More

New York: Knopf, 1998. First Edition. . Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. The third and final volume of the prize-winning McCarthy's, "The Border Trilogy," finds John Grady Cole and Billy Parham, in 1952 on a ranch in southern New Mexico, bound together by a kind of life based on horses and cattle and range that is still missing something and that requires regular visits across the border for whiskey and women. There, John Grady falls in love with a young prostitute with not unexpected results. First Printing, First Trade Edition (as stated). About 6 x 9 1/2 inches, 293 pages including dedication. Quarter bound in black cloth on black paper-covered boards with author's initials stamped in gold on front cover and gold lettering on spine. Top edge of text stained red. Pictorial dustjacket shows photo of a large fire burning across wheat fields (Wheat Stubble Fire, Eastern Colorada, 1992, by Larry Schwarm) on both front and back panels, photo of author on back flap. Tiny remainder dot… Read More

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1903. First Edition. . Hardcover. About Very Good. Francis Hopkinson Smith was an accomplished artist and successful engineer before he turned to writing fiction in his 50's. Colonel George Fairfax Carter, an ex-officer of the Confederate Army, a gentleman of the old South, left in poverty at the end of the war, was the first of Smith's fictional heroes and one of the most popular. "Col. Carter of Cartersville," issued in 1891, was a bestseller and later adapted for the stage. "Colonel Carter's Christmas" was published in 1903 and recounts a period in the Colonel's life when he living in a small house in New York trying to recoup the family fortune. Over the Christmas holidays, the Colonel helps a friend escape from a financial trap set by an unscrupulous banker. First edition, first printing. About 5 1/4 x 7 1/2 inches, 159 pages in light green, cloth-covered boards with front cover showing holiday-type decorations including… Read More

New York: Penguin Books, 2002. Trade Paperback. Very Good/Issued Without Jacket. This is the Steinbeck Centennial Edition of the novel its Nobel Prize-winning author considered his greatest work. Set primarily in the Salinas valley in central California at the beginning of the 20th century, this is the interwoven story of two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, over three generations. It is a story of human relationships from innocence to overwhelming guilt, greatness to depravity, abject poverty to unimaginable wealth, with many parallels to the biblical book of Genesis, particularly Chapter 4, Cain and Abel. This edition marks the 100th anniversary of Steinbeck's birth. This copy is a first edition thus, first printing (with complete numberline). About 5 1.2 x 8 1/4 inches, 601 pages in pictorial heavy-card French-style wrappers with foldover flaps and cover design by Paul Buckley. The b&w 1953 photo of Steinbeck on the back cover is by Philippe Halsman. Text shows a very slight spine… Read More

New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005. Hardcover. Good Plus to Very Good/Good Plus to Very Good. McGrath's fiction is often compared to works by Poe, Wilde, Kafka, and King and other writers of Gothic horror. Joyce Carol Oates noted his stories are "the nightmares of shattered personalties . bold, original and disquieting tales. told by narrators who are themselves bizarre." "Ghost Town" is a collection of three such stories set in New York City in three different centuries, beginning with a Revolutionary War hanging, then a 19th century merchant who drives his son insane and finally a Manhattan psychiatrist trying to treat a patient with PTSD from the World Trade Center attacks, not realizing she herself was also traumatized by 9/11. First edition, first U.S. printing (as stated, with complete numberline). About 4 3/4 x 7 1/4 inches, 243 pages in boards decorated with wrap-around b & w photo showing NYC skyline with Statue of Liberty in NY harbor in foreground. Title and… Read More

Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1994. Hardcover. Very Good/Good Plus to Very Good. The Glory" is the Pulitzer Prize-winning Wouk's sequel to "The Hope," which was set over the first 20 years of Israel's existence. With "The Glory," Wouk continues the first 40 years of Israeli history through the Yom Kippur War, the Entebbe rescue and the Camp David accords. First printing, first edition. About 6 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches, 685 pages including historical notes. Bound in tan paper-covered boards with brown backstrip and author's name in gold on lower corner of front cover. Gold lettering on spine. Dustjacket's pictorial front panel shows a desert landscape with soldiers and military vehicles flying an Israeli flag. Title in white, author in silver and blue. Lettering on spine is silver and white against a grey background. Small full color photo of Wouk on back panel with four blurbs praising Wouk's work. Boards and text show minimal surface and edge wear except a… Read More

Garden City: Doubleday, 1981. Hardcover. About Very Good/Good Plus. This is a late novel from the award-winning Western genre writer, Lutz. It is the story of a war between the rich and powerful Rock Island Railroad and the people of Enid, OK, who refused to give up their independence and become a company town. It features Jason Keeler, a lawyer, who suddenly finds himself caught in the middle of a conflict turning violent. First edition, first printing. About 5 3/4 x 8 3/8 inches, 183 pages bound in beige paper-covered boards with orange lettering on the spine. The dustjacket's front panel shows a graphic of a 19th century steam locomovtive facing a crowd of angry citizens. Back panel contains a seven paragraph excerpt from the novel. Boards and spine show only lightly bumped spine ends; no bumped corners, no noticeable edgewear. Binding is firm, no cracked hinges. Text is complete, clean and unmarked. Text edges show light foxing with remainder spray on bottom edge. A few pages have tiny… Read More

New York: Signet/New American Library, 1971. Mass Market Paperback. Good Plus to Very Good. Vintage Paperback, Signet P4491: Patten's 71st western genre novel in a prolific mid-20th century career features Frank Kaily's return to the New Mexico town that hanged his father to learn the town's secret before he became a victim. Paperback original, true first edition, first printing as stated on copyright page. About 4 1/4 x 7 inches, 128 pages including brief description and publisher's ad at front and light card mail-in ad for Zane Grey Library between pages 65 and 65. Pictorial wrappers show man in western clothing with his back turned holding a revolver as he surveys the empty main street of a small western town. Text has slight spine lean, o/w clean, complete and unmarked, w/o noticeable flaws or damage. Wrappers show reading crease, a diagonal crease across upper corner of back wrapper, some minor surface and edge wear. No tears or chipping. A decent first edition copy of… Read More

New York: Avon Books, 1963. Mass Market Paperback. Good Plus to Very Good. Vintage Paperback - Avon F-189: Western writer Fox's story of a rich, empire-builiding, ranch owner's attempt to drive an upstart homesteader off unused and unusable land and the stubborn, solitary homesteader, who was a former rancher and town marshall. Mass market paperback. First printing, first Avon edition. 144 pages in pictorial wrappers with front cover showing a single man holding a revolver and looking off cover with a covered wagon and cabin behind him. Blue and white lettering on cover and spine. Wrappers show reading crease, other minor surface and edge wear. No tears, no chipping. Text is lightly age-tanned in margins o/w clean, complete and unmarked, binding tight and square. Not ex-library, not remaindered. Rapidly becoming scarce.

New York: Random House, 2016. First Edition. . Hardcover. Very Fine/Very Fine. The 14th novel in Furst's highly-praised series of historical spy-thrillers set in Europe just before and during World War II. This book features a small French Resistance group operating in and around Paris during the German occupation in 1941, helping downed British airmen escape to England. Their leader is a man known as Mathieu. Members of his team include Lisette, a 17-year-old student; Max de Lyon, arms dealer and nightclub operator; Chantal, a woman of class and confidence and Daniel, a revenge-minded Jewish teacher. First Printing, First Edition (as stated, with complete numberline). About 6 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches, 234 pages in blue paper-covered boards with gold title box and gold lettering on spine. As new, unread. Signed by Furst on the title page The dustjacket's front panel shows a shadowy, grey Paris landscape against a lighter grey background, with black and grey lettering. The back panel contains seven… Read More

New York: Random House, 2009. Hardcover. Fine/Near Fine. The eleventh and next-to-last of Doctorow's novels is this fictional account of New York City's notorious eccentrics, the Collyer brothers. Homer, a lawyer, and Langley, a professional concert pianist, sons of a wealthy NYC physician, began, after the death of their mother, to withdraw from society and eventually barricaded themselves in their Fifth Avenue brownstone. They became recluses and hoarders and were found dead in 1947 in their house which was jammed with more than 120 tons of newspapers and junk. While basically accurate, Doctorow has changed some of the facts in the Collyers' history to better fit his description of a changing NYC in the first half of the 20th century. First edition, first printing. About 6 3/4 x 9 1/2 inches, 208 pages in dark-blue, paper-covered boards and a black backstrip with gold lettering on spine. The pictorial dustjacket shows a photo of two male figures in overcoats and hats next to an… Read More

New York: Riverhead/Penguin, 2012. First Edition. . Hardcover. Fine/Near Fine. A spy-thriller from Mathews, the promising author of the Merry Folger mystery/suspense series. This stand-alone historical novel is set just before World War II and features a 21-year-old Jack Kennedy, on a European tour to research his senior thesis, becoming President Roosevelt's personal spy trying to learn Hitler's plans to interfere with the 1940 U.S. election. First Edition, First Printing (complete numberline). About 6 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches, 361 pages including author's note. Black-bound spine over grey paper-covered boards with author's initials on front panel and lettering on spine in gold. Pictorial dustjacket front panel shows title in gold against a background black & white photo of young JFK. Back panel contains four blurbs praising the novel. Text fore edge shows just a touch of soiling, o/w text and boards are complete, clean and unmarked, not remaindered, not ex libris. No creasing, no… Read More

New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1906. First Edition. . Hardcover. Very Good. Harrison Fisher. McCutcheon, a popular novelist and playwright of the late 19th, early 20th century, is perhaps best remembered for his novel, "Brewster's Millions," and his "Graustark" works but "Jane Cable" was a bestseller in 1906-07 and serialized by newspapers in 1908. Set in Chicago, it is the story of a girl, adopted by wealthy parents whose mother deceived her father into believing Jane was his child, born to her while he was away in the west. This situation eventally led to blackmail from an unscrupulous adoption attorney who later tells Jane the truth about her birth to prevent her marriage to his son. All ends well, which partially explains the bookk's continuing popularity. First Printing, First Edition. Pictorial boards show moderate wear at the corners, spine ends and to the lettering on spine (though still legible). Previous owner's last name written neatly on fep,… Read More